DIABOLIK LOVERS: The Blacker the Better

03. Sacrificial Bride

(Natsuka POV)

"...could have killed her."

"I didn't, did I?"

"You wanted to though."

"Shut up!"

"Enough. It's done. Let us hope you're recklessness won't cause us undue stress and future problems with the Eagle Clan."

I wake slowly, my body freed from its numbing spell from the head down to my wriggling toes under my long skirt.

Subaru, Reiji and Laito are in the room, with Reiji leaning over me, trading off the cool cloth on my forehead. "Rest," he warns, "you've taken quite a tumble."

"You were sleeping for a while. You looked terribly pale." Laito fills in the gap Reiji leaves, perhaps purposefully. He's certainly worldlier than his brothers. I can't imagine he wants to highlight one of his blood relative tried to murder me under his watch.

I'm not sure how much time has elapsed since Subaru's cold hands squeezed my throat. I can't see the window from my position on the bed. I realize I'm in the guest room assigned me, and that the curtains have been drawn over the delightful balcony. A spot I'd forever associate with tonight. If it was still night...

And if I lived to see past the night, I indulge the bleak thought.

"Why is he here?" I gasp, mustering enough strength to glare at Subaru. He glowers back, sniffing loudly and then turning away. "If I remember, he tried to kill me."

"Subaru-kun lets his anger run away with him. He didn't mean—"

"Don't you dare," I try to sit up, but Reiji's hand and the strength behind it have me on my back a second later. Even from my mountain of pillows, I keep up scolding Laito. "He tried to kill me, and I don't want him here. Do you know who I am?" And because I'm shrill, I answer rapidly, "I'm the daughter of the late Garuda Washimine, the finest soldier in the last two centuries of the Eagle Clan. I am a noble-born Eagle demon, from my blood is the forefathers and mothers of our Clan. I will not be easily extinguished and I will..."

The blood has rushed to my head and I close my eyes, gasping for air.

"I warned you to keep easy," Reiji's soft voice is followed by his gentle touch over my sore throat. I don't realize how sore the area Subaru squeezed until I note the rough gauze kissing my flesh.

"Are the bandages necessary?" I ask, not caring how weak I sound.

"They, along with the arnica salve I've applied, will help you heal."

I nod, again weakly. My head is heavy and my eyelids droop close. I forget about Subaru in the room, and feel my body floating away, my conscious slipping out of this reality.

In my dream, I'm soaring in the night sky, fleeing a hoard of bats, chattering loudly for my blood. My panic coats my body in sweat and my heart is thumping so hard, I begin to taste the metallic beginnings of exertion in my mouth.

Feeling their little wings bat my body from all sides, I realize, too late, that I'm surrounded. Suddenly their tiny, black bodies collide into one large pit of darkness and I've lost my momentum in the air, I'm being hurled straight into the abyss yawning beneath me.

I'm screaming my throat raw.

It's a young woman who's rustling my flailing limbs into bed, and not Reiji or any of his diabolic brothers.

She's human. This I know instantly, from the cadence of her heart and her aura, it radiates more weakly, but with such purity that I'm struck by the goodness that pours out of her—in and of itself, it's own magic.